Category: About:config Hacks

This guide will teach any Firefox user how to use their “about:config” page to increase the page load times on a dial-up or broadband connection by using the rarely mentioned technology called “pipelining”. Pipelining will cause Firefox to override its default setting of loading one item on a page at a time and instead loads multiple items on the page simultaneously, ultimately speeding up your page load times in Firefox.

To enable optimum pipelining you will need to go to the about:config page by typing “about:config” into the address bar and then accepting the warning message.

Once you are in the configuration editing page you are then able to change the following items to enable pipelining, which in most scenarios will provide an optimum web browsing experience.

Type into the Filter bar at the top of the page the following text:

network.http

Once you have entered this text you will be faced with an array of values relevant to the network settings of Firefox. You will need to change the following values as shown below:

Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”

Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to “a number between 20 and 40”

Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”

Also, right-click anywhere in the white/empty area of the page and click “new/integer”

You must then name this integer as “nglayout.initialpaint.delay”

And give it a value of 0

Once you have completed all four of these tasks then you will be able to restart Firefox and you will notice instant increases in page load times (unless of course you are on a dial-up internet connection, in which case you may only notice a slight improvement).

Now you will be using a pipelined version of Firefox that will give you an advantage over all other web users in terms of speed, reliability and data integrity. Enjoy your newfound Firefox pipelining knowledge.

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This guide will let you control the amount of RAM that the Firefox browser on your computer is using while you are on the web. This guide is particularly useful if your computer does not have a lot of RAM. Read below to find out how you can use the “about:config” page to maximize the performance of your computer without losing the ability to explore the internet.

The first thing you will have to do is open your Firefox browser and then enter the following URL into the address bar at the top of the browser:

about:config

This URL is a webpage that accesses he configuration values of your browser directly. Thus allowing you to edit completely the look, feel and functionality of your Firefox browser. Once you have typed in this address you will be greeted with a page warning you about the dangers of entering this page. The page will say “Here be dragons!”. Although, don’t be worried this is only to protect the Firefox settings of an inexperienced computer user so you will just click the “I’ll be careful, I promise!”. Once you have clicked this button you will be led to the configuration page which will contain a lot of values.

Now what you will need to do is enter in the “Filter” bar at the top of the about:config page the following text:

browser.cache.disk.capacity

Once you enter this text into the Filter bar you will be left with a single value which will have a number value in Kb (Kilobytes) of your default RAM maximum for Firefox, which will usually be “51200”.

You can now change this value to anything you feel most fitting. I recommend the following:

Amount in Mb of System RAMRecommended Kb For Firefox

0 – 128

10000

128 – 512

15000

512 – 1024

20000

1024 – 2048

35000

2048 +

45000

As soon as you have edited the value to suit the total system RAM of your computer the you can resume using Firefox and the edited value will take effect next time you start Firefox. If you would like to see the effects immediately then open task manager, by right-clicking the start bar and then clicking “Task Manager” or hold “ctrl+shift+esc”.

It is that simple to decrease the impact on system performance that Firefox creates on your computer. Enjoy your new found Firefox configuration knowledge.

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This guide will tell a Firefox enthusiast how to disable the “Here be dragons!” warning screen that appears when you enter the URL “about:config”. Disabling this warning will save time and provide convenience for a Firefox user who is interested in changing the look, feel or performance of their Firefox browser. Read below to find out how easy it is to remove this pesky and unnecessary warning screen and get on with your configuration editing.

Firstly you will need to type "about:config” into your address bar of Firefox and then click the “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button on the “Here be dragons!” Warning page. Once you have done this and you are fronted with the list of values in the configuration page, you will need to enter “general.WarnOnAboutConfig” into the “Filter” bar at the top of the page.

Once you have entered the text into the Filter bar of the about:config page you will be left with a single value. The value will of course be: “general.WarnOnAboutConfig” and will be set to “true”, unless of course you have already disabled the warning message.

To disable the warning message until you decide to re-enable it is as simple as setting this value to “false”. Once you have changed the value to false you will notice that from now, until you re-enable the value; you will be fronted directly with the configuration page as opposed to the warning page upon entering “about:config” into your address bar.

It is that simple to disable that irritating warning message that slows down your configuration editing. Enjoy your newfound Firefox configuration editing knowledge.

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This is for those of you who enjoy taking advantage of Firefox’s ability to install third party add-ons and plugins. If you are a frequent downloader of add-ons and plugins for Firefox you may find that the (s) wait time before you are able to click the install button is extremely inconvenient and frustrating. Read on to find out how to increase, decrease or remove this wait.

Firstly I would like to show you what exactly I mean by the "(s) wait. I mean the wait in milliseconds before you are able to click the “Install” button and install your add-on.

The (s) wait is demonstrated in the screenshot below:

Now, like all of my other browser tutorials, you will first need to open your Firefox browser. Once you have opened your browser you will need to go to the URL “about:config” and then type into the “Filter” bar at the top of the page the following phrase, without the quotation marks “security.dialog_enable_delay” and then hit enter. Now you will have on your screen a single value that will be called “security.dialog_enable_delay”. You need to right click this value and select “Modify” from the sub-menu that appears.

Once you have done this a dialogue box will appear with the number of milliseconds Firefox will make you wait before it will let you click the “Install” button. The default is “2000” but you can now change this value to whatever you want. As a practical joke on your friend or workmate you could set it to say “99999999999999999” and then have fun watching them try to install an add-on or you could commit to the more productive approach which would be to set it to “0” to disable the wait completely.

Enjoy your faster and easier add-on installation. This also works as a great prank, have fun!